New Sales Training Research: Aligning Sales Competencies in Learning and Development

By Meghan Steiner | November, 17 2016

Is your company setting up its sales personnel for success? Is it targeting sales competencies that reflect the 21st century business landscape? Our sales training research reveals some answers that might surprise you.

In Q4 of 2016, Richardson and Training Industry, Inc. partnered to perform new sales training research, surveying 288 companies across more than 14 industries that ranged in size from less than 100 to over 50,000 employees to examine organizations’ approaches to identifying and developing sales competencies.

The goal of this sales research project is to provide sales organizations and L&D professionals with insight to help them develop sales training programs that better align with the goal of helping sales professionals master the competencies that are most important for business success.

Sales Training Research Results

The study found that there are significant gaps between the sales competencies reported to be most important for business success and the competencies that are effectively developed through training. Specifically, the research suggests a widespread gap in the effectiveness of training for the following competencies:

Targeting buyers

Prospecting opportunities

Knowing the market

Understanding customer needs

Effective presentation skills

Expanding current accounts

Potential causes of this gap are a mismatch between training goals and business goals and lack of consistency in training across departments.

Additional Research Findings

This research also offers insight into other trends in sales training related to the modalities in which training is delivered, key influencers in the development of a sales competency strategy, and sales professionals’ interactions with customers across the sales cycle.

About the Author

Meghan oversees the planning and execution of all marketing and demand generation activities for Richardson. She is responsible for managing sales enablement and sales support efforts, creating new business opportunities, increasing company, product, and service awareness in existing and dormant accounts through integrated campaigns, partner marketing, product marketing, and international marketing programs.